Early Growth of Panicum sarmentosum Roxb. – A Promising Grass in Livestock - Coconut Integration System

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202 The 1st_{International Seminar on Animal Industry 2009}_|_{Faculty of Animal Science, Bogor Agricultural University}

Early Growth of

Panicum sarmentosum

Roxb. – A Promising Grass in Livestock -

Coconut Integration System

Tarsono1, Mustaring1, A.M. Amir2, and A.L. Amar1

1 _{Animal Husbandry Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Tadulako University, Indonesia}

2_{Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Tadulako University, Indonesia}

ABSTRACT

Coconut plantations have been long widely used as growing area. In Central Sulawesi this integrated system traditionally plays important roles in small scale farmers. In Central Sulawesi, the system is

suitable and productive forage genotypes are important aspect for the production systems. Panicum

sarmentosum and Panicum maximum were compared in a plot trial under coconut plantation at

Lalombi of Lembasada village, South Banawa, district of Donggala. The treatments: P. sarmentosum,

P. maximum, P. sarmentosum with Desmanthus virgatus, and P. maximum with D. virgatus were replicated 5 times. The 20 experimental units were arranged in completely block randomized design. This paper reports plant height, number of tiller, and herbage production at the early growth, 8 weeks

after planting, of the grasses. The study has shown that P. sarmentosum grew better than P. maximum,

both on grass monoculture, and on mixed-with desmanthus. P. sarmentosum and P. maximum did not

differ statistically in plant heights, neither without (149.3 cm vs. 141.7 cm), nor with desmanthus

(138.7 cm vs. 133.9 cm). Nevertheless, the number of tillers and dry forage yields of P.sarmentosum

was significantly higher than those of P. maximum, both without and with desmanthus, i.e.; 145 vs. 81

and 124 vs. 75, and 425.6 vs. 235.1 kg/ha and 316.5 vs. 141.2 kg/ha, respectively. The correlation of

these two attributes is also significantly high (R2 = 0.9132). This result has suggested that P.

sarmentosum grows better than P. maximum that well adapts under shade. It is concluded, therefore, P. sarmentosum is another promising grassfor use in shaded niches.

Key words: Panicum sarmentosum; integrated farming; shaded niches

INTRODUCTION

Steady growth of the human population leads to an increased demand for agricultural products. These stuffs essentially depend on agricultural land availability, while this sort of land is continuously shrinking resulting from land use convertion (Singh and Ghosh, 1993;

Sukmana, et al., 1994), which is another impact of

the population increase and needs. In addition, the number of farm animals has increased, resulting in severe competition for land use between crops and livestock, therefore, there is an urgent need for increased productivity per-unit area from forage plants to help redress the problem (Blair, 1991; Dzowela and Kwesiga, 1994). Incorporation of forage plants onto plantation lands is an alternative solution to provide herbage. Moreover rising livestock under plantation crops has long been practised, such as on coconut lands in Central Sulawesi, though none or very limited forage improvements have been done by the farmers.

Overall integrated farming is suggested as the largest category of livestock systems in the world in terms of animal numbers, productivity and the

number of people it services (Thornton et al.,

2002). They maintain that, over the last decade, meat production from these systems has grown at a rate of about 2% per year, and about two-thirds of the rural small-scale farmers rely on mixed crop-livestock systems for their livelihoods. Moreover, given the demand increases for livestock products forecast for the coming decades, mixed systems are going to have to provide a disproportionate part of this increase, especially in developing countries – so they will become even more important in the future (ILRI, 2000 ).

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Faculty of Animal Science, Bogor Agricultural University | The 1st_{International Seminar on Animal Industry 2009} ₂₀₃

forage supply, significant attentions have been paid placed by researchers and agronomists on the use of plantation for the multi-purposes land-use systems. Finding suitable and more productive forage genotypes is, therefore, one

particular aspect that attracts researches’

attentions. This experiment aimed to compare the agronomical performances of a new promising

grass species Panicum sarmentosum Roxb. to

Panicum maximum. Grown under coconut

canopy the later species was chosen for comparison, since it has already been well known for its suitability under shade environments (see for instances, Lowry and Jones, 1988; Reynolds, 1995; Ibrahim, 1998), and as a member of

Panicoideae (genus Panicum). Available

information on P. sarmentosum is very scarce,

particularly on forage cultivation, but Clayton et

al. (2008) have explained the grass description.

This grass is considered as a weed; however, few studies have indicated the grass potential as Lalombi of Lembasada village, sub-district South Banawa, district of Donggala, Central Sulawesi. The study site was invested by various weeds, pared as monoculture (either grass alone), as well

as, in mixture with legume Desmanthus virgatus.

Therefore, there were 4 compared treatment-combinations, i.e.:

PsL0 = Panicum sarmentosum in

monoculture (without legume)

PmL0 = Panicum maximum in monoculture

(without legume)

PsL1 = Panicum sarmentosum with

legume desmanthus

PmL1 = Panicum maximum with legume

desmanthus

The four treatment-combinations were replicated 5 times, resulting 20 experimental units. Each of these 20 experimental units was

placed in 15 m2 plot (5 m x 3 m). The

experimental units were arranged by completely

randomized block design. One replication of the experimental units was illustrated in Figure 1.

Each of the grasses was planted in 3 rows of 125 cm apart, and 75 cm distance in row. There were 21 grass planting holes in each plot. Two vegetative planting materials (tillers) were

planted per-hole. At the grass-desmanthus

mixture, Two 20cm-wide legume planting rows were formed, each row was placed in between grass rows (Figure 1). Two hundred and twenty

nine seeds of Desmanthus were sown at each

row, or 458 seeds/plot (equivalent to planting rate of 2 kg/ha). Seeds were buried at approximately

0.5 cm depth. Desmanthus was planted 28 days

before the grasses’ to allow the legume formed vigorous seedling prior to the grass planting.

Early growth of the 2 grass genotypes was compared through 3 plant parameters were; plant height, number of tillers/planting hole, and dry-matter of herbage yields. These parameters were collected at 8 weeks after planting (56 DAP). Vertical plant heights were measured from the base (at soil surface) to the top of the grasses. Numbers of tillers were counted prior to herbage harvesting. Herbage was harvested by cutting, all the clumped grasses in each plot, at 15 cm from soil surface. Fresh harvested herbage at each plot was weighed, and sampled approximately of 400 gram for determination of dry-matter content, and to be used in calculation of herbage production in dry-matter basis. The samples were dried in a

forced-drought oven at 70oC for 3 days.

All parameter data were analyzed by ‘analysis of variance’ (ANOVA) using statistical

package (Statistix 4.1 windows version).

Para-meters that statistically affected by experimental

treatment were compared by ’the least significant

differences’ (LSD) at 95% confident level (P=0.05).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The study has suggested that P.

sarmentosum grew better than P. maximum, both on grass monoculture, and on mixed-planting

with desmanthus. The plant heights did not differ

statistically (Table 1) between P. sarmentosum

and P. maximum, neither without (149.3 cm vs.

141.7 cm), nor with desmanthus (138.7 cm vs.

133.9 cm). However, the number of tillers and

forage dry-matter yields of P. sarmentosum were

significantly higher than yield of P. maximum,

both without and with desmanthus, i.e.; 145 vs.

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Figure 1. Illustration of The Plot Trial (replicated 5 times)

Table 1. Comparison of studied grasses in plant height, number of tillers, and dried-herbage yields at 56 days after planting (n = 5, P = 0.05)

Compared parameters

Treatments

Grass alone Grass-legume mixture

P. sarmentosum P. maximum P. sarmentosum P. maximum

1) Plants height (cm) 149.3 a 141.7a 138.7 a 133.9 a

2) Number of tillers 145.0 a 81.0b 124.0 a 75.0 b

3) Dried-herbage yields (kg/ha) 425.6 a 235.1 b 316.5 b 141.2 c

Note: values of a parameter followed by different superscript letters differ statistically at 0.95 confident levels.

Grass of P. sarmentosum produced

significantly more number of tillers (shoots), both in monoculture and in grass-legume mix, over the

grass of P. maximum. Farther, the first grass

species yielded higher herbage than the latter.

These two superior characteristics of P.

sarmentosum over P. maximum were also approved by highly significant correlation of the

number of tillers and herbage production (R2 =

0.9132; P<0.01). This suggested that the more the tillers produced the higher herbage yielded. Though herbage production positively correlated

(R2 = 0.8624; P<0.01) with plant height, it is not

as meaningful as the first correlation for 3

reasons. Firstly, the first correlation (R2 =

0.9132) is stronger than the second (R2 = 0.8624).

Secondly, it is suggested that plant height dependent to stem elongation. Lastly, the heights

of these 2 grasses were not differing

significantly. Therefore, it is reasonable to

assume that herbage of P. sarmentosum produced

higher leaf: stem ratio than P. maximum.

However, this hypothetical assumption needs to be approved by further study. This is important to be found out, due to leafy forage crops are considered to be better than the less leafy species. It was also noted that morphologically, white hair

at the plant base are softer on P. sarmentosum

compared to those on P. maximum. This plant

characteristic may influence forage palatability, but confirmed studies are needed.

Nevertheless, this early growth study has

showed that P. sarmentosum Roxb. promises for

use as forage under plantation environment. It

produced more tillers and herbage than P.

maximum. While, the grass of P. maximum has been widely recognized (Amar, 2003). In addition, the above results might also indicate

some better environmental adaptation of P.

sarmentosum over P. maximum, particularly, on such low soil’s fertility of the study site. However, in this particular experimental site, more studies are necessary to allow firm conclusion and recommendation.

CONCLUSIONS

P. sarmentosum is another promising grass for use in shaded niches. It is also recommended father more detail studies on other environmental adaptation of this promising grass genotype, as well as the forage’s quality and palatability to confirm the potential used by livestock.

PsL0 PmL0 PsL1

Grasses planting rows Legume planting rows

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Faculty of Animal Science, Bogor Agricultural University | The 1st_{International Seminar on Animal Industry 2009} ₂₀₅

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Authors gratefully acknowledge the

Directorate of Research and Public Services (DP2M) Directorate General of Higher Education under the Ministry of National Education of the Republic of Indonesia, for the financial support to this study. Appreciation is also given to the Research Centre of Tadulako University as facilitator of this work and completing the research administration. The supports of the Faculty of Agriculture, especially that of Professor Marsetyo, the head of Animal Feed and Nutrition Lab. and staffs, were invaluable to the completion of this study. Finally, we appreciate the collaboration given by Mr. Kamaruddin, the land owner of the study site.

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